Steve Paul grew up in New England, landed in Kansas City with his family, and eventually logged a 40-plus year career as a newspaper writer and editor. His journalism spanned local and national news; book criticism and the arts; long-form features on murder, art fraud, architecture and barbecue; profiles of writers and musicians; restaurant reviewing; and editorial page editing and columnizing. He's a former board member of the National Book Critics Circle as well as the onetime owner of a bookshop. His latest literary biography is "Literary Alchemist: The Writing Life of Evan S. Connell," which aims to revive attention to this under-appreciated American writer. Steve's previous book, "Hemingway at Eighteen" (2017), was the product of many years of off-and-on research and accelerated by his retirement from newspaper work in 2016. He also writes regularly on the arts for KC Studio magazine.